Love Is a Battlefield: “A History of the Defeated” by Zachary Jernigan

Zachary Jernigan is an author whose work explores the warrior’s heart and alchemizes the soul of science-fantasy. In his latest novella, A History of the Defeated, main character Amur and his resurrected hellhound, Sroma, live a routine life of joyful roughhousing, physical training, reluctant rumination, and anxious anticipation.

Overshadowing the peaceful, meditative setting is the long-awaited return and uncertain destruction of Dorone, Amur’s former God-King lover and Sroma’s murderer. While Amur worships the musculature (with vivid description) and exploits of legendary warriors, the only chance he has of defeating Dorone, a powerful being known as an elderim, is by using a drug that enhances his body and decays his memories. He must leave most of the fighting to Sroma, but her loyalty isn’t guaranteed.

The novella slips back and forth between Amur’s present and past, when he was a student artist contracted into an interspecies relationship with Dorone. Jernigan’s pacing is steady, rhythmic, and deliberate with a sentence structure as regimented as Amur’s training routine. Over 145 pages, Jernigan weaves a potent narrative of Amur’s complex relationship with his mothers, his culture, and himself.

While I would have liked to read more about Amur and Doronoe’s falling out, the story’s told from Amur’s POV. He struck me as someone who doesn’t like to recall harmful memories more than necessary, preferring to instead focus on the lesson the memory taught him. That minor gripe is the only one I had with the novel… that, and the fact that I wish the story were longer.

If you haven’t read Zachary Jernigan’s Jeroun duology, I highly recommend checking it out, as events and characters in the two books tie into A History of the Defeated. 

A History of the Defeated is currently available from Lethe Press. Get it and support new and emerging authors!